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Gunstar Heroes Review

I never did play Gunstar Heroes on the Sega Genesis, but from all of the awesome reviews and amazing praise it was getting, I had to buy it on the Nintendo Wii’s virtual console. So I bought it, played it, beat it, and I got to tell you, it is amazing. Not only did it push the Sega Genesis to its limits, but just the sheer factor of non-stop action is exhilarating, and it should be played by everyone who has the Virtual Console. I never played a Sega Genesis game quite like Gunstar Heroes before, all I played were the Sonic’s, and the Streets of Rage’s, but Gunstar Heroes is a totally different concept with even easier controls and gameplay, it’s a gem in the Sega Genesis collection.

A Run-’N-Gun type of game can never really have an outstanding story, but Gunstar Heroes has a pretty decent one. Planet Gunstar 9 has four very powerful gems inhabiting it, and if they are misused, destruction can occur. The Gunstar family are the protectors of this planet, and save it when it is in danger. Colonel Red, an evil dictator, has kidnapped and brainwashed the Gunstar's oldest brother Green, and used him to steal the gems, and it's up to you to save your sibling and get those gems back and safe. Like I said, a Run-’N-Gun can’t really have an amazing story for the backbone of a game, but in Gunstar Heroes, there’s a decent story with some decent story telling on the way.

For the time of the Sega Genesis, Gunstar Heros is like the Gears of War of today. The backgrounds are outstanding, the character sprites are smooth and never look bad, and the lighting effects are still impressive in this day and age. Even some of the bosses are in full 3D and look great. Gunstar Heroes is also one of the most colourful games ever to hit the Sega Genesis. Every colour you see in the game is amazing, and there’s so many different shades, that you would count the same amount on a game like Zelda. Every level looks fantastic and well designed, and my head still does a spin when I try and think how Sega even got all of this fantastic graphics in such a small cartridge, it boggles the mind.

Yeah, not only are the graphics totally impressive, the music and sound is also quite impressive. Each level has am amazing tune, and makes you pumped about playing it. The sound effects like explosions and gunshot sounds sound fantastic and it stills boggles the mind on how they fit all of these real-sounding sounds into to the game with such ease. Even the main characters have a yell that can be heard, and they also sound pretty fantastic. The only downfall in my opinion is that sometimes your gunshot sounds cancel out other sounds, but it’s not too bad, and it definitely does not take away from the gaming experience.

What do you do that makes it so good? Well, you run, and gun, easy. No, but seriously, what you do is walk from the left side of the screen to the right shooting people in your way. At the start of the game, you can pick between 5 weapons: bullets, force, lightning, chaser, and fire. You can also pick two weapons up at once and create a super-weapon which can take off almost double the damage. One of the super-weapons is bullets and chaser which is like 2 bullets at once, but homing, and it works awesome. You have two way to shoot, run and shoot, or stand and shoot. I personally like stand and shoot better because it’s easier for bosses, and they’re harder than regular enemies. The run and shoot can get annoying because you can run into an enemy by an accident even if you just want to shoot him. There are four levels to chose from at the beginning, and at the end of each one, you fight a boss, and take the gem back. There are more levels after the 4 main levels also. The buttons are simple, a shoot button and a jump button, easy. You can aim up, down, left, right, and diagonal while shooting also, so you can shooting anyone from any angle. There are also 3 different difficulty settings. Gunstar Heroes has some amazing gameplay, and anyone can have fun playing it.

The three difficulty setting can keep you playing for a while, and just the sheer fun of playing the whole game in one sitting is also amazingly fun. Also, the different weapon combinations can also keep you playing and trying all of the different weapons on all of the enemies. There are also unlimited continues, so you can never die and have to start all over again. The save system on the Wii’s Virtual console also come in handy when you don’t want to start the game all over again.

Gunstar Heroes is one of the best games over to be made on the Sega Genesis only behind the Sonic games and some other games. The mixture of amazing graphics, and the outstanding gameplay makes it a must buy if you have your old Sega Genesis still working, or if you have a Wii and an online router, it only costs 800 Wii points. Gunstar Heroes is an outstanding game overall.

+ Excellent co-op multi-player. + Superb graphics, pushed the Genesis to the limits. + Great gameplay, and some awesome level design. + Great variety of weapons to choose from. + Amazing soundtrack.